The Qingming army launched another offensive against the Lu clan ancestral seat, sending shockwaves through the various realms.
By this point, nine of the Lu clan's ten commanderies had fallen, leaving only the single commandery of their ancestral seat struggling desperately to hold out.
Yet this was their final line between life and death. A rare will to survive erupted among the Lu clansmen. Sons of the noble house and cohorts of hereditary clan retainers donned armor one after another and took to the battlefield. Bolstered by an endless stream of reinforcements from the other noble families, they miraculously managed to hold Qingming's spearhead at bay outside the ancestral seat.
After several probing attacks by Qingming's vanguard legions, they discovered that this time the Lu defenders not only refused to break, but fought with utter disregard for their lives. Many charged forward with desperate fury, resolved never to return.
Qingming's generals were veterans forged in storms of blood, and they mounted an immediate, fierce counter. But the Lu clan stood its ground, fighting to the death. In a moment of carelessness, one of Qingming's Golden Pellet dharma idol cultivators pushed too far forward. A Lu clan Dao Foundation cultivator, clutching a self-destructing dharma artifact, threw himself into a desperate tackle, clamping onto him so tightly that both were blown into fragments.
The first wave of heavy shock troops suffered grievous casualties, while the chariots had powerful enemy Dao Foundation experts throw themselves into close quarters, forcibly hacking through the hulls to drag out the Dao Foundation cultivators driving them, crushing and slaughtering each one.
In the first day of bloody combat alone, Qingming suffered thousands of casualties—an unprecedented toll since the invasion of Lu territory began.
The frontline commanders promptly halted the infantry advance. Instead, they called in heavy artillery reinforcements and fresh munitions, substantially increasing the concentration of heavy cannons at the front. Day after day, they scoured the ground with barrage after barrage, exchanging cold steel and explosives for the lives of Lu scions.
While the battle against the Lu clan stalled in a bloody stalemate, Xiaoyu was thriving across Eastern Jin. The hundred floating barges originally assigned to him proved wholly inadequate; even when reinforced to five hundred, they were still not enough. In the end, Wei Yuan gritted his teeth and dipped into his strategic reserves, allocating a full eight hundred vessels before Xiaoyu's demands were finally met.
Armed with such potent instruments, Xiaoyu gave free rein to his thirst for conquest. As he penned daily letters to Wei Yuan recounting everything he saw and heard, he swept clean the borderlands of Eastern Jin. He did not spare even small towns. Wherever his army marched, every soul was captured and transported back to Qingming.
Wei Yuan monitored the frontline developments every day, spending his spare moments conferring with Old Daoist Chuhe on how to rearrange Western Jin's boundary stones. Such an undertaking brought immediate hardship but promised boundless merit for generations to come, as it would fundamentally transform the natural environment across half of Western Jin and save countless lives.
However, many of the boundary stones had been planted long ago, their nurturing brought to the very pinnacle. Moving them rashly risked losing most of that accrued harmony, which in the short term would trigger a host of natural and man-made disasters.
The territory to be rearranged was simply too vast, and the resulting karmic burden would be immense. Though Old Daoist Chuhe had attained sainthood through merit, Wei Yuan still worried that the old Daoist might buckle under the weight. For days, Wei Yuan wrestled with the dilemma, weighing and calculating the risks over and over.
In the midst of his labors, Wei Yuan felt a sudden stir in his heart, sensing someone calling out to him beyond the realm's perimeter.
Summoning Xu Henshui at once, he departed the immortal city and flew out of Qingming alongside him. There, stepping out from the void, was Xu Youyi. Her face was coated in frost, radiating a chilling menace.
The moment she laid eyes on Wei Yuan, she snapped irritably, "Wei Yuan! Do not push things too far! All I did was haul off one old hairy leg—did you really have to go to such lengths? You've already seized over thirty of our border cities and carted off nearly ten million people! What more do you want?"
Wei Yuan offered a faint smile. "Ten million or a hundred million—do these people matter?"
Xu Youyi found herself momentarily at a loss. Once, such a question would have required no thought at all. Mortals were mere burdens to be left to fend for themselves. If they grew too numerous, famine would cull them naturally; no matter how many died, a few decades would replenish the numbers.
Yet with Qingming's ascent and Wei Yuan's feat of slaying immortals with human luck, that common assumption had been shattered. Mortals were plainly useful; the others simply did not know how to harness them.
Knowing, however, was one thing; putting it into practice was another. In ancient times, when the first immortal was also the Human Sovereign, the application of mortal karmic luck on the immortal path had already been known. Across the long expanse of history that followed, several sovereign kings had risen, all drawing upon the empowerment of human luck to attain matchless martial prowess and expand humanity's domains.
Yet accumulating human luck was arduous, and in modest quantities it offered little value. For it to benefit an immortal, the required ocean of mortal karmic luck was far beyond what an ordinary immortal could ever gather. Moreover, human luck was fickle, gathering and dispersing like mist. An ocean of luck accumulated through painstaking effort could be halved by a single natural calamity, or frittered away by the reckless folly of a petty official.
Thus, even with Qingming's example before them, the immortals still paid little heed to mortals. To rely on human luck to take another step forward was a path only dynastic sovereigns and the Human Sovereigns of history could ever walk.
Since human luck could not be readily gathered and rearing mortals demanded immense effort and vigilance, the vast majority of immortals never bothered with the trouble. To someone like Xu Youyi, tens of millions perishing in a disaster would not stir the slightest ripple in her heart.
Hence, confronted by Wei Yuan's question, Xu Youyi had no answer.
Yet she was candid enough. "They are not important. But someone must live along the border, and cities built must have soldiers to garrison them. If you carry these people away, I have to fill the void with just as many. The trouble is, who willingly marches off to the bitter cold of the northern reaches? That means another staggering expense."
Wei Yuan smiled. "That expense is borne by the Eastern Jin imperial court, not the Xu family. Why should Senior be in such a fret?"
Xu Youyi narrowed her eyes slightly. "Over a third of Eastern Jin belongs to my Xu family now. The court's governance is rotten and the imperial treasury is empty. Where will they find the funds to relocate displaced vagrants? In the end, won't it still fall upon my Xu family?"
At that moment, Xu Henshui cleared his throat softly.
Xu Youyi's brows arched slightly. "What? Boy, do you have something to say?"
Wei Yuan drew Xu Henshui forward and said, "This is the future Watch Master of the Palace of Grand Beginning's Creation Watch. Senior, please show him some respect."
Xu Youyi replied coldly, "And so what?"
Xu Henshui offered a helpless grimace. "Immortal Ancestor, Wei Yuan is not like those family immortals of old who admired you, and our Xu family has no great friendship with the Palace of Grand Beginning to speak of. He will not humor you. If you keep speaking in such a tone, war will be the only path left."
Xu Youyi flared in anger. "Then let us fight! I..."
The sentence cut off abruptly. She had merely spoken out of habit; she was no fool, and what immortal could ever truly be foolish?
Wei Yuan waited quietly for her response. For Xu Youyi to have ascended to immortality, her schemes and methods were bound to be formidable. One had only to recall how, in the previous engagement, she had been the first to strike, snatched a single immortal leg, and promptly departed, escaping completely unscathed—that alone revealed her shrewdness.
Suddenly, Xu Youyi's demeanor shifted, turning calm as if she had become an entirely different person. Aloof and icy, she said, "I have no desire to wade into the muddy waters of the Lu clan's troubles, which is why I have only ever made empty gestures. Now, all I wish is to protect the Jin-Qi Xu family. For such a request, what must be paid?"
This was the true visage of an immortal: lofty, detached, heedless of the mortal realm's births and deaths, devoid of joy or sorrow, governed solely by calculated moves on the board.
Wei Yuan silently offered a nod of praise, then said, "Grant me right-of-way. I intend to attack the Northern Qi Xu family, demolish the Xu clan ancestral seat, and tear down their mystic realm."
Xu Youyi frowned. "You wish to dismantle two ancestral seats in succession? That is likely impossible. If you attempt it, certain figures will step in immediately."
Wei Yuan smiled faintly. "Have they not already intervened? Did it achieve anything? Since their strike bore no fruit, the time has come to pay the price."
Xu Youyi countered, "And if I refuse to agree?"
Wei Yuan said placidly, "Then I will first dismantle the Jin Xu ancestral seat, and then the Qi Xu ancestral seat. Dismantling two families will simply become three."
Xu Youyi remained impassive. "Can you truly accomplish that?"
"Slaying an immortal might be beyond me, but I can certainly ensure Senior has no easy time. If Senior doubts my word, you may ask Cui Wantong."
Xu Youyi replied, "Leave aside impossible demands and speak of something realistic."
Wei Yuan praised, "As expected of Senior! Very well. Spreading mercy to the ancestral seat is fine, provided the Northern Qi Xu family pays two hundred million Qingyuan in reparations, payable over five years, with heavenly treasures accepted as collateral. Furthermore, the Northern Qi Xu family must surrender a direct bloodline ascension seed. Which one, I care not, but one must be handed over. That is my bottom line, not open to negotiation."
Xu Youyi asked, "And what benefit is there for me?"
Wei Yuan paused, then replied, "From the Qingyuan paid by the Northern Qi Xu family, I can allocate twenty million to Senior."
"Fifty million!"
"Forty million."
"Deal."
Once Xu Youyi had departed, Xu Henshui's expression turned complicated. "What... what just happened?"
Wei Yuan chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder. "Your Immortal Ancestor traded temporarily standing on my side for that immortal leg, forty million Qingyuan, and Eastern Jin's temporary safety."
"'Temporarily'? 'Temporary'?" Xu Henshui seized keenly upon the two words.
Wei Yuan offered a sly grin, volunteering no commentary.
"Why must you strike the Qi Xu clan? It is truly an arduous, thankless task."
Wei Yuan's expression turned stern. "I am doing this to let all under heaven understand what price must be paid for making an enemy of me. No one should dare dream of slinking away unpunished! Since Xu Shuhe sought to pull chestnuts from the fire, I shall cut off his clan's resources first and pluck their ascension seed! I want to see how the Northern Qi Xu family intends to ever rise again!"
Xu Henshui shook his head. With this blow from Wei Yuan, should the Northern Qi Xu family handle it poorly, they might well be struck from the Thirteen Prestigious Clans entirely.
The movements of immortals naturally drew wide attention. Xu Youyi had barely left when Wei Yuan received several more summons. Turning to Xu Henshui, Wei Yuan said, "Go attend to your duties; I still have several immortals to receive."
*Several immortals?* Xu Henshui gave Wei Yuan a deep, lingering look before turning back toward the Creation Pill Workshop.
Wei Yuan flashed back into Qingming, emerging a moment later accompanied by Bao Yun. Together, they ascended above Qingming's skies, where Old Mistress Bao was already waiting.
Bao Yun offered an elegant bow. "Greetings, Old Ancestor."
Old Mistress Bao studied her from head to toe, her expression clearly fraught with complexity. She spoke slowly: "Over these years, you have received little support from the clan. It was not that our Bao family lacked the means, but rather that the juniors below fretted over my preferences and dared not grant you too much. Manshan and Bao Shu were no different; they were already helping as much as they possibly could, so harbor no resentment toward them."
Bao Yun replied, "This junior has never harbored any resentment."
Old Mistress Bao sighed softly. "In those years, an ancestor from your branch, in pursuit of his own path, colluded with certain figures in the Sword Palace. He brought harm upon the Palace of Grand Beginning's Fourth Generation Palace Master, which indirectly led to Kongqing's fall. After Kongqing perished, I was beside myself with grief and fury. I once stormed the Sword Palace to demand justice, but the two palace masters of the Sword Palace possessed peerless cultivations, and I fell slightly short. I could only withdraw.
"Knowing I lacked the strength to right that wrong, I came to despise that ancestor of yours. Sensing that disaster loomed, he fled the ancestral seat long ago, vanishing without a trace. So I directed my wrath toward his entire branch. The younger generations guessed at my feelings and suppressed your line at every turn."
This was the first time Bao Yun had ever heard this past history. After a pause, she replied, "I have already received abundant resources from the family, and my childhood was by no means lacking. The other talents of the clan received no more than I did, so I hold no complaints."
Old Mistress Bao nodded, then turned to Wei Yuan. "That little dragon is inherently willful. Subduing it will likely require considerable effort and a great deal of patience. But once tamed, it will prove an immense boon to you. That draconic breed possesses the innate divine ability of Ceaseless Regeneration; its restorative power and lifespan far surpass ordinary divine creatures."
"Thank you for your guidance, Senior," Wei Yuan offered his thanks, though he did not mention that the Azure Dragon had already fused with the Cyan Dragon.
The Azure Dragon born of the heavenly tribulation was plainly stronger than the Cyan Dragon. Following their fusion, the Azure Dragon had taken predominance. The Cyan Dragon was merely a remnant spirit formed after being slain by Xihe, retaining only a sliver of instinct and virtually none of its intellect.
After Old Mistress Bao departed, Wei Yuan swallowed a qi-replenishing pill to restore himself to peak condition before setting out to receive the next immortal in line.
Chapter 1153